


Boys, Girls and Teenage Drama - The Pendragon Boys 4

by dragonflyMerri



Series: The Pendragon Boys [4]
Category: Merlin (TV)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-04-14
Updated: 2012-04-14
Packaged: 2017-11-03 15:19:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,775
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/382876
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dragonflyMerri/pseuds/dragonflyMerri
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Arthur and Merlin had always thought that their oldest son, their golden son, Jamie, would discover girls first. So it came as a surprise when calm, level-headed, younger Colin was caught in a compromising situation with his girlfriend.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Boys, Girls and Teenage Drama - The Pendragon Boys 4

“Pops! I’m home!” Jamie called out as he closed the front door. Kicking off his sneakers, he stacked them in the shoe rack before padding down the hall. He peered into the empty kitchen and called again.

“Pops? I’m home.”

“In here.” He heard Merlin’s muffled voice coming from his home office.

Jamie stuck his head into the office. “Hey Pops, is Col home yet?”

Merlin continued peering at his giant screen Mac computer. “In his room,” he said absently, then began typing furiously.

Jamie grinned at his father’s back. When Merlin was deep into the graphic design of a new book, he tended to phase out of the real world and live in the world of fonts, graphics and page layouts.

Jamie headed up the stairs and into his room to change out of his football gear. He dropped his knapsack full of homework beside his desk and stripped off, then grabbed a pair of sweat pants and matching sweat top. He could hear music coming from his brother’s room next door.

He headed next door. Colin’s door was closed but at his first rap, it swung open, the latch not having caught properly. Jamie was just about to call out to his brother, but stopped short in shock, mouth open, as he stared at the bed.

Colin was lying on the bed – well, he was actually lying on top of some girl who was lying on the bed, and they were doing some serious snogging. Colin had his top off and so did the girl, and Colin’s hand was buried behind the girl’s back, obviously making a try at getting her bra off.

“Jesus Christ, Colin!” Jamie squeaked out in shock.

Colin jumped and leaped off the girl. He stared wide-eyed back at Jamie, his hair sticking out where the girl had obviously run her hands through it, his mouth red and his face flushed. The girl squawked and grabbed at the bedspread to try and cover herself.

“Jamie! What the hell?” Colin shuffled off the bed in an effort to try and shield the girl. “You ever hear of knocking?”

“I did knock – your door wasn’t closed. What the hell Col?”

Colin bent over, picked up the girl’s blouse from the floor and handed it to her. 

“Close the door before Papa comes up here!” Colin leaned down again, grabbed his top and pulled it over his head.

Jamie stepped into the room and closed the door behind him. He crossed his arms and scowled at his younger brother.

“Are your crazy having a girl in your room? Does Pops know she’s here?”

“Course Papa knows she’s here. He met her.”

“And he allowed you to bring her up here for a snogfest?” Jamie asked incredulously.

“What? Course not. We came up to work on our designs for the school dance decorations.”

By this time both Colin and the girl were fully dressed. The girl moved to sit at Colin’s desk. Colin stayed standing by the bed.

“Yeah right – a lot of ‘project work’ was going on in that bed!”

Colin had the grace to blush. “Well, we, um, sorta got distracted. It wasn’t Fraya’s fault.”

Jamie turned and gave the girl a thorough looking over. She coloured under his regard.

“Fraya. You’re in the art club with Col?” 

The girl nodded and turned moon-eyes on Colin. “We’re co-chairing the decorations for the upcoming dance. Colin’s brilliant with his concepts for the theme we’ve chosen.”

Colin grinned back at her, besotted. “Fraya’s a great artist. The dance is going to look wicked.”

Jamie cleared his throat loudly, interrupting the soppiness. “Exactly what part of concepts and theme was happening here?” He pointed at the bed.

Colin glared at him. “It was nothing, Jamie. We were just fooling around.”

“And how far was that fooling around going if I hadn’t walked in?”

Colin bit his lip and dropped his gaze. “We would have stopped.”

“Yeah? When?”

“Jamie please don’t be mad at Colin,” Fraya interrupted. “We both knew what we were doing-“

“NO YOU DIDN’T!” Jamie yelled at the pair. He turned to glare at Colin. “You know better than this! There is no way in hell that the dads would allow you to do this! And what if she got pregnant? What then Colin?”

Colin stared back at him wide-eyed. “Pregnant? We didn’t….we wouldn’t have….”

“Oh yeah? I bet every pregnant teen didn’t think they would get knocked up.”

“We were not making out!!!” Colin yelled back at him.

“Stop it! Both of you!” Fraya stepped between the two boys. “I’m sorry, Jamie. I didn’t mean to get Colin in trouble.”

“It’s not Colin who would have been in trouble if I hadn’t of interrupted you two. You’re the one who would have ended up pregnant.”

Fraya blanched and took a step back. She looked like she was about to burst into tears. “Colin, I want to go home. Can you walk me home now?”

Colin glared a death glare at Jamie and grabbed Fraya’s hand. “Yeah, come on.”

Jamie watched the two leave. As soon as they were out of the room his expression dissolved into one of a very worried older brother.

 

*****

 

Merlin chewed his lip as he sat back, contemplating the book layout on his computer. He was considering the placement of the image to best fit in with the layout when he heard a soft knock on his home office door. Turning, he saw his son Jamie.

“Hey James, how was practice?”

“S’OK” his son shrugged. “Um, Pops, can I sit here for awhile?”

Merlin smiled and nodded towards the loveseat. “Come on in.”

Then he turned back towards his computer, hit ‘save’ and clicked out of the project he was working on. He opened up another file, one that was a quick design job that didn’t require much work. 

He heard Jamie settle on the loveseat, grabbing a cushion to hug. Jamie sitting there meant he had something on his mind that he wanted to talk about. But Jamie was much like his father in that he liked to mull over his thoughts before discussing a problem.

It was only a few minutes later when Jamie spoke up.

“Pops, can I talk to you about something?”

Merlin hit ‘save’ on his computer and turned to face his son. From the looks of it, Jamie had run his hand through his soft blonde hair a couple of times, which meant that this was a serious issue. Merlin had often had to smooth down Arthur’s hair after one of his sessions wrestling with serious ‘issues’.

“What’s up?”

Jamie took a deep breath, knawed his lip, then blurted out, “I think you need to have a talk with Col.”

“With Colin? About what?”

“He’s got a girlfriend.”

Merlin smiled. “Fraya, yes I know, I met her.”

Jamie sighed and screwed up his nose. “Yeah, well I kinda walked in on him and Fraya…. doing….stuff.”

Merlin hid his alarm. “What kind of ‘stuff’ are we talking about? They’ve only been going out a few weeks.”

“They were on his bed and Col had his shirt off and so did Fraya and they were, um, touching….”

Merlin’s alarm ratcheted up a few more notches. “OK, thanks Jamie. I’ll talk to him.”

“You won’t tell him I told you, will you Pops? I don’t want him to think I’m a snitch or anything. Only I think he’s too young, yeah? He’s only 14.” Jamie ran his hand through his hair again.

“13 – he’s not 14 until next month.” Merlin absently corrected. “Don’t worry. I won’t mention our talk.”

Jamie’s mouth twisted up in a cross between a grin and a grimace. He nodded and headed out of the room.

“Jamie.” The boy stopped and turned as Merlin called to him. “Thanks for looking out for your brother.”

“Yeah, well. He’s the only one I’ve got, yeah?”

****

Merlin turned back to his computer, but he wasn’t looking at the screen any more. His mind was now firmly on his youngest son. 

Colin was one of the most put-together kids he knew. He exuded a calmness and maturity far beyond his years. He was confident, talented and was the centre of a host of friends. Both Arthur and Merlin credited him with having a steady head on his shoulders. But he was, after all, a boy of 13 – going on 14, with raging hormones and a very pretty, sweet girlfriend. 

Merlin dropped his head into his hands and scrubbed his face. Arthur would have a fit when he found out. 

Both he and Merlin worried more about Jamie then Colin. Jamie was the golden child – golden in looks just like his birth father, and golden in personality – one of the most popular kids at school. At 15 he was a rising star on the school football team, was captain of the junior volleyball team, and was a first on the track team. He was also good in school. Between his looks, his popularity and his star status in sports, he had trails of girls following him around and could have any one with a snap of his fingers. Somehow, Arthur and Merlin had both expected to have ‘girl trouble’ with Jamie, not Colin.

But it was Colin, quiet, funny, calm Colin who had hit his stride with a girl first. Merlin was Colin’s birth father and Colin had inherited his artistic talents from his father. Colin was a gifted artist, a wonderful writer, a whiz at computer design and could be so funny that dinners often dissolved into gales of laughter as he spun more and more improbable tales of his daily adventures. Nothing was commonplace with his sharp powers of observation and his sense of the absurd. It was this sense of humour that made him so popular with his group of friends.

Colin had introduced Fraya to his fathers a couple of weeks ago. She was in the arts club with him and now, apparently, their friendship was progressing at an advanced pace.

Merlin considered waiting to talk to Arthur before talking to Colin. Jamie might be Arthur’s natural son, and Colin his, but somehow the men had developed a special connection with each other’s son. Jamie usually sought out Merlin when he was troubled, and Colin’s choice was always his Daddy first, before his Papa.

Realizing that he had lost his concentration for his work, Merlin shut down his files on his computer and headed to the kitchen to start supper. He was chopping vegetables for the stir-fry when he decided that he did need to discuss the matter of Colin and his girlfriend with Arthur. Together they could figure out who would talk to Colin and what exactly they would say.

Merlin was still mulling over his son’s blossoming romance when he heard the front door open.

“Babe! I’m home!”

He heard Arthur drop his briefcase by the door and hang up his coat then head towards the kitchen. Merlin turned to him with a grin. Arthur’s greeting of “Babe, I’m home” always made him snicker. It had started as a joke early in their relationship and somehow had stuck. As much as it made him smile, it also pluck at a secret place in Merlin’s heart.

“Hey gorgeous, have a good day?”

The two men sank into each other’s arms, heads buried in each other’s neck as they savoured the reconnection of being lovers for a few brief moments before once again becoming parents to two active teenagers.

Merlin pulled back and dropped a brief kiss on Arthur’s lips before turning back to the dinner cooking on the stove.

“How did your meeting go this morning?” he asked.

Arthur filled him in on his day while he grabbed a soda from the fridge. He leaned against the counter and watched Merlin continue with the dinner preparations.

“Are the boys home yet?” Arthur asked, after he finished talking about his meeting.

“Jamie’s in his room doing homework. Colin should be home shortly. Fraya was here and he’s just gone to walk her home.”

Arthur raised an eyebrow. “Fraya was here again? Sounds like our Col’s getting serious.”

Merlin looked at him. “Yeah. We need to talk about that after dinner.”

“Anything wrong?”

“Our little boy is growing up a bit faster than we anticipated. But we’ll talk after supper. Go get changed. Supper will be ready as soon as Colin gets home.”

Arthur dropped a kiss on the back of Merlin’s bent neck then went up to their bedroom to change. When he came back down in baggy sweat pants and a football jersey, the table was set for supper.

Merlin and Arthur were leaning against the counter chatting when the front door banged open and Colin entered, toeing off his sneakers. He peered into the kitchen on his way up to his bedroom.

“Hey Dad, hey Papa, when’s supper?”

“As soon as you call your brother and get back down here.”

Colin nodded and raced up the stairs, bellowing for his brother to come for supper.

Arthur rolled his eyes. “Must he do that every single time? He has to walk past Jamie’s room to get to his own room, but he’ll yell from the stairs like a fishwife.”

“At least he gets half way up the stairs before yelling. Jamie just stands at the bottom and hollers. I swear half the neighbourhood knows it’s supper time when Jamie yells,” Merlin countered.

There was a thumping of teenage feet descending, much like a herd of elephants and both boys burst into the kitchen and took their seat around the table. They didn’t pause in their chatter about something related to school as they helped themselves to the food, and the Pendragon household settled into its evening routine.

 

****

 

After supper, Merlin and Arthur settled down in the den while the boys cleaned up the dishes and put away the leftover food. Merlin poured Arthur a drink before sitting down beside him.

“Whiskey? Does this have anything to do with what we need to discuss?”

Merlin leaned back against Arthur’s chest, shuffling down so his head was resting against Arthur’s shoulder. He pulled Arthur’s arm around him and intertwined their fingers. 

“Yeah. Have a sip first, you might need it.”

“Sounds ominous,” said Arthur before taking a swig of his drink.

Merlin tilted his head back and looked up at Arthur. “Colin’s getting pretty serious about Fraya.”

“How serious can they get? They’ve only been dating a few weeks.”

“Jamie walked in on them during a pretty heavy petting session, shirts off and all.”

Arthur paused in the act of taking another sip. He slowly lowered his glass.

“He’s only 13!”

“He’ll be 14 in a month. And Fraya is a very pretty young lady.”

"Why was she in his room? Did you know she was there?"

"Of course I knew. They were supposed to be working on some art project. I had no idea their relationship had progressed to making out."

Arthur groaned and dropped his head back against the sofa “Christ, I had hoped we’d have a few more years before getting into this.”

Merlin looked at him as if he’d grown a second head. “They’re teenage boys, Arthur! Growing teenage boys. How old were you when you had your first snog?”

Arthur blushed a little then scowled. “Snogging is generally done with shirts on as I recall. Did you talk to him?”

“Not yet. I wanted to discuss this with to you first. Do you want me to talk to him or do you want to talk to him? Jamie doesn’t want Colin to know that he told me, so whoever does the talking, it needs to be a general talk about safe sex and all that.”

Arthur gnawed on his bottom lip as he frowned in concentration, looking remarkably like his son had looked hours earlier, sitting on the loveseat in Merlin’s office. He was Colin’s usual confidant, but Merlin had a gentler, calmer touch in matters such as this. It had been Merlin who had answered all the boy’s questions when they were growing up, questions about sex and bodily changes and raging emotions. And it was usually Merlin who picked up the pieces of broken hearts.

“I’ll talk to him if you want, but you’re usually better in this subject then I am,” Arthur said after a few minutes consideration.

Merlin sighed. “OK, I’ll talk to him when he heads up for bed. You can be the fallback, for when he’s feeling in need of reassurance.”

Arthur tightened the arm he had around Merlin and dropped a kiss onto the top of his head. “Thank you. I love you.”

Merlin turned and looked at his partner. Then he reached up to press his lips against his lover’s. Arthur blindly set his drink down on the end table and brought his hand up to cup Merlin’s face as he returned the kiss and deepened it.

“Pops, we’ve finished the dish- aw geesh, guys, get a room!”

The two men broke apart and turned to see their two sons looking on in teenaged disgust. Well, Jamie was looking on in disgust, Colin was grinning.

“In case you’ve forgotten,” Arthur replied regally, “this whole house happens to be ours, so technically this _is _our room. And I’ll snog your father anywhere and anytime I want, thank you very much.”__

Colin’s grin widened.

“Honest to gods, dad, other kid’s parents don’t go around kissing and stuff all the time!” Groused Jamie.

“Hey,” Merlin interjected. “Your dad and I were having a private moment here. And if other kid’s parents had partners as infinitely kissable as your dad, they’d be ‘kissing and stuff’ all the time too.”

Jamie rolled his eyes, grabbed his brother and turned to leave. “Come on Col, before I puke with the romance of it all.”

Colin looked back over his shoulder at his parents, his face split in a full-on grin of approval. He gave them a thumbs up before disappearing around the corner.

“Remind me again which one of them is the older one?” Arthur asked dryly as he watched them leave.

 

***

 

Arthur headed to Colin’s room while Merlin went into Jamie’s room to settle him for the night. Then he headed to Colin’s room for a talk. He passed Arthur in the hall, heading to Jamie’s room. Arthur gave him a quick hug of encouragement.

 

Merlin walked into Colin’s room and over to the bed. His son was propped up against the headboard with a book. Merlin sat on the edge of the bed.

“Hey, can we talk for a moment?”

Colin put the book aside.

“Is something wrong, Papa?”

Merlin shook his head, and noticed Colin’s beloved stuffed dragon peeking out from under the blankets. Even now, Colin still slept with Dragon, although now the toy just shared his bed and wasn’t clutched close to his chest as he slept.

“Just wondering about Fraya. This is the third time you’ve brought her home. You must be getting pretty serious about her.”

Colin dropped his eyes and began twisting the sheet between his fingers. A slow blush was crawling up his neck and staining his cheeks.

“I really like her, Papa. She’s really smart and a great artist and she really likes me too.” Colin raised his eyes and looked at his father hesitantly. “I really like her, Papa.” He said again.

“I sort of got that when I saw you two together.” Merlin smiled softly. “She makes you feel special, doesn’t she?”

Colin nodded.

“When you’re with her, you probably feel other things too.” Merlin saw Colin’s blush deepen. “Falling in love is a wonderful thing, Colin. It makes your heart sing and colours look brighter and being with the person you love just makes everything better.”

Colin nodded in agreement.

“And when you get the chance to be alone with that person, and they kiss you is such a way that you think you’ll just fly right off the earth and all the way to the moon, it’s nothing short of magical.

“Yeah, Fraya kisses like that,” Colin whispered, tracing the pattern on his bedspread with an outstretched finger.

“When kisses feel like that, it’s easy to want more. More kisses, more touching, more being with that person. I think you and Fraya might have reached that point, haven’t you?” Colin hung his head even further and began chewing his lip.

“It’s perfectly normal, son, but I want you to be careful. It’s so easy to drown in those feelings and take things too far, too fast. I know it’s tough, when she’s kissing you and is willing in your arms, but you’ve got to be responsible. You’re both young and accidents do happen.

Colin looked up with a look of dawning horror. “Oh god, Papa. Are you giving me a sex talk?”

Merlin tilted his head to the side consideringly. “Do you need a sex talk? I know you know the basic facts of life, but knowing the mechanics of it is a lot different than knowing how to handle yourself when you're with someone and your body has taken over your brain.

“I don’t need a sex talk!” Colin asserted.

“OK then, how about a talk about love? About how you can show someone you love them and don’t just want to have sex with them?”

“I don’t want to have….I don’t, that is, um, I mean….oh hell!”

“Hey, I was 13 once and-“

“I’m almost 14!”

“OK, I was 14 once and believe it or not, I remember how it feels to be with your first love."

Colin looked at him doubtfully.

“My first love was Anna and when she looked at me a certain way, I felt all the blood in my body drain away and pool in my…

“OK, I think I get the picture!” Colin squirmed.

“Anyway, we’d find any place we could to be alone and there was nothing I wanted more in this world then to be kissing her and touching her.”

“What happened?”

“Her mom caught us. We were down to our underware and I was sure that this time we were going to go all the way when her mom walked in on us. Absolutely the most embarrassing moment of my life.”

Colin froze.

“Jamie told you that he saw me and Fraya, didn’t he?”

Merlin smiled. “What would he have seen?”

“We weren’t doing _it _. We were just touching.”__

“Touching leads to doing _it _, especially at your age. Hormones trumps control nearly every time when your 14.”__

Colin absently reached out and picked up Dragon, crossing his arms and holding his beloved toy against his chest.

“She just makes me feel so good, Papa. And I love kissing her.”

“I know you do, Colin. But if she’s really special to you, you’ll take the time to show her what she means to you – not that you just want to have sex with her.”

“But I don’t…I mean….I don’t like her because I want to have sex with her, I just want to be with her. I like her because she’s funny and smart and she makes me feel ten feet tall when I’m with her.”

“If she’s that special to you, then romance her. Hold off trying to have sex with her. It is infinitely more wonderful to make a person feel like they are the most precious person in the world, then to just rush them into sex. Experience love, Colin. Love is different than sex. Love will take you to the moon with happiness. Take Fraya on that ride to the moon.”

“What about kissing? I can still kiss her, right?”

“Kissing is OK. Kissing can be amazing in it’s own right. Even after all these years with your father, some days he will kiss me in such a way that it takes my breath away and makes me fall in love with him all over again. Your dad can take me to the moon with a kiss.”

“And you love Dad that way?”

Merlin smiled a soft, secret smile. “I love your Dad to the moon, the stars and beyond the cosmos. I drown in his eyes. And that has nothing to do with sex and everything to do with love.”

Colin’s eyes glazed with tears. “I want Fraya to love me like that, Papa”

“Then love her like that. There’s no rush for sex. When sex does happen for you, you owe it to yourself and your partner to make it the most special, wonderful experience. And that will only happen with a deep, abiding love.” 

Colin hugged Dragon harder against his chest.

“When it is the right time for sex, can I talk to you Papa? So that I’ll know if it’s the right time. So that it will be special.”

Merlin nodded. "I'd be honoured if you talked with me first. And if it's going to happen, we'll talk about making it a safe as well as special experience." Merlin leaned forward and kissed his son on the forehead. “As long as it’s not when your 14!” 

He took the book, marked the page, closed it and put it on the bedside table.

Colin smiled his shy, sweet smile. “I think me and Fraya need to wait a bit more. I think I would like to see the moon in her eyes first.”

Merlin grinned at his son and was rewarded with a matching grin.

“Go to sleep now, son. You’ve done a lot of growing today. You need your rest. And I think that whenever Fraya comes over, perhaps you two should work together at the kitchen table.”

“OK, Papa.”

Colin shuffled down into the bed and pulled the covers up. Merlin didn’t mention that he still held Dragon tight against him, like he used to do when he was younger.

Merlin headed to the door and turned off the light. Just as he was pulling the door slightly closed, Colin called out.

“Papa? I hope that one day someone will love me as much as Dad loves you.”

“And I hope that one day, you will love someone as much as I love your Dad. Good night, Colin. Sleep tight.”

 

Merlin walked past Jamie's room and heard his son call out to him. He stopped in the doorway and popped his head in. "You called?"

"Is Col going to be OK? Did you talk to him?"

"Your brother's going to be just fine. He's a smart boy. He knows what's the right thing to do."

Jamie smiled at his father. "Thanks, Pops. I'm glad you're our dad. Love you lots."

"Love you lots too. Don't stay up too late."

"Night Pops."

"Good night Jamie."

 

****

 

Merlin walked into the den and stopped, gazing at his partner. Arthur was lounging on the sofa, feet propped up on the coffee table, watching a chat show. He looked up when he felt Merlin’s gaze. 

“How did it go?”

“Good. He’ll be fine.”

Merlin walked over to Arthur, grabbed the TV remote and turned off the set. Then he straddled Arthur and leaned in to kiss him with as much love as he could muster. 

His kiss started off tender and loving, gentle and sweet. Arthur leaned up into the kiss, his tongue trying to lick into Merlin’s mouth, but each time Merlin pulled back slightly, denying him entry. When Arthur subsided, Merlin renewed his pursuit of Arthur’s lips, licking the tender inside of his bottom lip, teasing him by opening his mouth just a little bit wider then closing it again. Under his hands, he could feel Arthur tremble. When Arthur whined in need, Merlin deepened the kiss, sliding his tongue into Arthur’s mouth and stroking it along the roof of his mouth. Arthur shivered beneath him, his hands tightening their grip on Merlin’s hips. Merlin finally opened his mouth and allowed Arthur to enter. The kiss turned into one of need and desire and just a bit frantic before Merlin pulled away, both men panting.

“What was that for?” Arthur asked breathlessly.

“Because you take me to the moon and beyond. Because I drown in your eyes and I live for your kisses. Because you are the most amazing man, the most wonderful father and the only lover I ever want. Because I love you more than you could ever know.”

Arthur was stunned by Merlin’s words.

“You are my world, Arthur.”

Arthur’s eyes blazed with love and he pulled Merlin back into another kiss. “You are my life, Merlin.”


End file.
